Toy



T. H. BANIFORTH.

TOY.

. APPLICATION HLED MAR. H, 1920.

Patented June 28, 1921.

I V6010 f, 770 mas #07 3407 equal force UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA.

TOY.

Application filed March 11, 1920.

To all (U/LO'HZ it may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS HENRY Brian FORTH, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and a resident of the city of North Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toys, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in toys, and the object of my invention is to devise a toy adapted to be constructed in the form of a figure in uniform, such as that of a boy scout, soldier, sailor, or the like, the arms of which are movable, and which is provided with manually operated mechanism for operating the arms so that they may be made to assume the various positions employed in flag and semaphore signaling, thus providing a device which is of great utility in self-teaching signaling. A more specific object is to simplify the construction described and illustrated in the Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,305,638, granted to me on the 3rd day of June, 1919, for an analogous device.

I attain these objects by the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a face view section.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view ing mechanism for one arm.

Fig. 3 is a View of the charts.

Similar figures of reference indicate similar parts throughout the views.

The toy is indicated generally by the numeral 1 and consists of a hollow casing formed in the desired shape, that of a boy scout being taken for the purpose of illustration. The right and left arms of the figure, f2 and 3 respectively, are rotatably mounted so that they may be made to execute the various circular movements desired, and to each arm at the shoulder and centrally of the pivot on which it turns is secured a chain sprocket, 4 and 5 respectively.

As the mechanism for operating the left arm only is illustrated this only will be described, it being understood, however, that the description and illustration apply with to the right arm operation.

Referrlng now particularly to Fig. 2, 6 and 7 indicate portions of the front and rear sides of the figure in which is rotatably supported the operating shaft- 8, this shaft being extended at each end exteriorly of the of the toy, in part of the operat- Specification of Letters Patent.

stantially V-shaped Patented June 28, 1921. Serial No. ceases.

sides 6 and '7 and being 9 and 10 respectively may be operated from either side when desired. 11 indicates a chain sprocket secured to shaft 8 between which sprocket and the arm sprocket d extends a chain 12, as shown in Fig. 1. The shaft 8 is preferably further supported in brackets 13 and i l and one of these brackets, 13, provided on its upper end with a locking disk member 15, provided with spaced notches 16, there being as many notches as there are signaling positions of the arm 2. Secured to shaft 8 on one side of the lock disk 15 is what may be termed generally a key 12', formed subso that two arms 18 and 1:) are provided on the upper ends of which rests a bolt 20 having a projection 21 adapted to engage any of the notches 16 according to the set position of the arm 2, as hereinafter described, the bolt 20 itself being pivotally connected at one end, as at to a base plate 23 loosely mounted on the shaft 8 on the opposite side of the lock disk 15, which plate is provided with a spring member normally in contact with the upper edge of the bolt 20, as shown in Fig. 2. and 26 indicate outwardly projecting pins secured into the side of the base plate 23 designed to be contacted by either of the arms 18 and 19, as the case may be.

27 and 28 represent indicator charts ar ranged on the figure casing concentric with the shafts of the lower arm-operating sprockets, pointers being secured to the shafts moving coincidently therewith, such pointers being indicated by the numerals 29 and 30. These charts are similar to those described in the Letters Patent above referred to and are again described here for the better understanding of the present invention. They consist of a series of con centric circles divided by radial lines, which lines indicate the respective signaling positions of the arms and in the circl s and on the lines are marked the alphabetical letters which are made by the moving of the point ers to the respective radial lines, the correct position of the pointers, and onsequently of thesignaling arms, being obtained from the respective circles. which are preferably colored distinctively to assist in the quick and easy reading of the charts.

The operation of the device may be briefly described follows. V1 hen it is desired to raise an arm the knob for operating the parprov'cled with knobs so that the shaft 8 ticular arm is gripped and turned in a forward direction, thus first moving the key 17 so that its arm 18 swings forwardly and raises the bolt 20 to carry the projector 21 out of the notch 16 in which itis seated. Arm 19 of the key then contacts with the pin 26 of the base plate 23 so that on continuing to turn the knob thebase plate .23, bolt 20, and the lower arm sprocket are also turned the required distance necessary to swing the arm, actuated by the chain 12 and upper arm sprocket, to the desired position, on reaching which the bolt 20 drops to reengage its projection 21. into the new notch 16 and thus prevent inadvertent displace ment of the arm from the position to which it has been carried. To return the arm to the ready or any intermediate position the operation just descrlbed is reversed, the turning of the knob to disengage the projection 21 by means of the arm 19' of the key, allowing the shaft, base plate, bolt, and sprocket to be turnedbackwardly by the engagement of the key arm 18 with pin 25 of the baseplate.

The sending of the complete letters using the two arms is accomplished thus. Suppose it is desired to send the letter S. The operator turns the knob for the right hand arm in the manner hereinbefore described to operate the shaft 8 and consequently the right hand pointer, bringing the pointer to register with hand chart on which is marked the letter S, at the same time noting that this letter is in the first circle on the chart whereupon he seeks the radial line crossing the first circle on the left hand chart on which the letter S is marked, operating the left hand pointer by turning the left arm knob to bring it to register with the said radial line, when the arms willbe in the correct position to signal the letter S. The other letters are formed in the same manner.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have devised a toy of extreme simplicity which is of highedueational value in the teaching of the art of signaling;

lVhat I claim as my invention is:

1. A toy comprising a figure in the form of a signaler having arms pivotally mounted, sprockets for each arm secured thereto centrally of the respective" pivots, a manually rotatable shaft for each arm, a sprocket secured to each shaft, a flexible connection between each shaft sprocket and ,each arm sprocket, a stationary locking disk for each arm, provided with are signalingpositions of the arm, said notches being "spaced to correspond with the arm travel between the signaling positions, and a lock carried by the. shaft adapted to co-act with said notches to locktheshaft against inadvertent rotation on the completion of asignaling movement, said lock bethe radial line on the right as many notches as there ing adapted to unlock by the actuation of the shaft. 7

2. A toy comprising a figure in the form of a signaler having arms pivotally mounted, sprockets for each arm secured thereto centrally of the respective pivots, a manually rotatable shaft for each arm, a sprocket secured to each shaft, a flexible connection between each shaft sprocket and each arm sprocket, a stationary locking disk for each arm through which the arm-operating shaft extends provided with as many notches as there are signaling positions of the arm, said notches being spaced to correspond with the arm travel between signaling positions, a plate loose on said shaft having a lock bar fulcrumed thereon adapted to engage one of said notches to lock the shaft against inadvertent rotationon completion of a signaling movement, and means secured to said shaft for raising said lock bar out of en gagement with said disk notch and permit rotation of the shaft. i

8. A toy comprising a figure in the form of a signaler having arms pivotally mounted, sprockets for each arm secured thereto centrally of the respective pivots, a manually rotatable shaft for each arm, a sprocket secured to each shaft, a flexible connection between each shaft sprocket and each arm sprocket, a stationary locking disk for each arm through. which the arm operating shaft extends provided with as many notches as here are signaling positions of the arm, said notches being spaced to correspond with the arm travel between signaling positions, a.

plate loose on said shaft provided with a lock bar fulcrumed thereon having a projection adapted to co-act with said notches and lock the shaft against inadvertent rotation on completion of a signaling movement, a V-shaped member secured to said shaft on the arms of which said lock bar rests, and projecting members on said plate between which said V-shaped member is disposed adapted to be contacted respectively on the forward or backward movement of the said memberon the freeing of theloek bar projection from the notch in which it is engaged. I

4-. A toy comprising a figure having the arms thereof mounted for swingingmovement, an operating shaft geared to'each arm and rotatably mounted in the figure with the ends of the shaf extendingoutwardly of the figure and equipped with operating handles, and cooperating locking means carried by the figureand each of said'shafts normally tending to hold the shafts and swinging arms against accidental movement but adapted to automatically'release the shafts upon manual rotation thereof.

Signed at Vancouver, B. 6., Canada, this 26th day of February, 1920.

THOMASHENBY BAMFORTH'. 

